Category Archives: Ebay Reports

May 30, 2012 · 12:15 pm

May 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This cover may look like quite an ordinary, if not attractive franking, but what makes it that bit more special is that it has been sent by the Continental Night Mail and with seven 1/2d vermilions paying the 1d fee plus UPU letter rate. Early bidding pushed the price up to $104.50 (around £66).

This attractive mixed franking with New Zealand surprised me when it fetched £211.95. Sent to New Zealand, it was then redirected and further franked with New Zealand stamps. Two things are odd about this though; it was franked with 6d to New Zealand when the rate had been reduced to 2 1/2d just over two years previously on 1st October 1891 when Australia, its Colonies and New Zealand entered the UPU; and the second thing is that since it New Zealand was a member of the UPU, additionally franking the cover to be redirected was necessary as it was a free service for UPU members.


This interesting stamp only had one bidder and sold for £107.45. You may be questioning how such a spectacular error that the stamp is missing the purple can go for so little. Well that’s because I believe that it has been chemically treated to remove the purple. I have seen instances in the past of the 5d with the purple or the blue missing, however every example, as with this one, the remaining colour and the cancel appears faded. Still an interesting talking point in a collection.

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April 25, 2012 · 9:11 pm

April 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

Niger Coast covers are scarce, and this one went cheaply at £118.15. If I hadn’t have missed it, it would of gone for more! However covers from Old Calabar River are the most common.

 

 

Postal history from the Channel Islands is very collectable, and this attractive registered cover from Jersey fetched £56.68. Increasing its desirability is the 4 1/2d green and carmine which is one of the more difficult values to find on cover.

This cover sold for £58.75 because it is being sent to the Orange Free State (well at least that’s why I bought it!). In my September 2011 Ebay Report, I feature a cover also going to Orange Free State that sold for £97.45, so I’m happy with this purchase. The 7d rate is paying twice the 2 1/2d UPU rate plus 2d registration fee.

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March 23, 2012 · 12:14 am

March 2012 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

March was such a strong month for Jubilee items, that I’ve had to do a top 5 of the month! First off is this Niger Coast cover, which features three different issues. Sent registered from Opobo River, the franking pays the correct registered rate to England, and fetched £132.02

Next up is this attractive British Bechuanaland 6d purple on rose block of four cancelled with a single central Pitsani cds. The buyer snapped this up for only $37.90. If I had seen this item before it had finished I would have certainly bid more than that. Not too long afterwards, it was on Deverrell MacGregor’s website for £55, and sold very quickly.

 

This high franking on a parcel post label sold for £119.50. It bears a 1s green and a 4 1/2d green & carmine, both of which are scarce as singles on parcel labels, so it was no surprise it fetched a good price. Parcel labels are very collectable.

This superb Bechuanaland cover is definitely the star eBay item of the month, and probably the year. This registered envelope is franked with no less than 27 stamps worth a total of 5s!! Eight different bidders bid seventeen times to try and take this item home, and unfortunately the usual last minute bidding took the price beyond what I was willing to pay for it, and it fetched £339.50. The philatelic nature of the cover put me off bidding higher, but it is still an outstanding Jubilee and Bechuanaland cover.

This cover definitely wins the title as “Most Unassuming Cover”, but look closer and you’ll see that it’s a little gem. Sold for a measly £4.20 (I am still kicking myself for forgetting to bid), it has been franked with four 1/2d vermilions. However, I assume that the registration label at the very top left was mistakenly applied, and was partially torn off by the sender before dropping it in the post box. The post clerk having seen this, has still assumed that the letter is intended to be sent registered. So not only is the franking insufficient, but the sending of registered letters was only allowed over the post office counter, hence the manuscript “Posted out of course” and the 6d worth of postage dues. Take another look, and you’ll notice that the stamps are cancelled in Torquay in 1916, and the post clerk has deemed them as an illegitimate franking and placed crosses next to the stamps. Hence explaining the 6d fine. A great little cover with a great story to tell.

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February 28, 2012 · 8:34 pm

February 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This attractive unmounted mint block of four of the 6d purple on rose-red sold for £107.22. What makes it more interesting is that it shows the marginal marking signifying the middle of the sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

The Jubilee issue stamps used in Salonica are scarce, and the 1s green and carmine is the most scarce of them all. It is catalogued in the Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth catalogue at £190 and fetched £111.90.

 

 

This attractive piece bears the Niger Coast 2 1/2d and 5d tied by the oval cancel of Old Calabar (SG type Z1) in violet, and is in fact only recorded used on the 2 1/2d by the Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth catalogue. It sold for £148.

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January 25, 2012 · 7:16 pm

January 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

Kicking off 2012, we have this interesting advertisement from Bovril in the style of a cigarette card, showing the 1/2d vermilion (inscribed “Bovril / For Health and Strength”) and the 1881 1d lilac (inscribed “Bovril is the Product of Prime Ox Beef”) both “cancelled” by a Bovril cds. Unfortunately the card has been cut in half. It sold for £12.01.

 

 

 

This Army Telegraphs stamps often appear on Ebay, mostly on the 1/2d vermilion. However this 1/2d green has the much scarcer 8mm overprint, where  the “A” is half over “L” and the “Y” is almost over “P”. In mounted mint condition, it sold for £79.84.

 

 

This scarce 1s green with inverted watermark in mounted mint condition sold for £266.00 plus postage. Catalogued in the Stanley Gibbons Specialised Volume 1 at £900, this was a very good result considering the image is quite poor and it is quite difficult to tell the condition.

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December 22, 2011 · 12:35 pm

December 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

I have two rare frankings with the 9d purple and blue this month to show you. The first is a single franking, and the only one I have ever seen. It doesn’t appear to be philatelic, but I can’t make out what rate it is paying, but the crayon markings on the front obviously hold the clue. If someone could help me out it will be much appreciated! It sold for £109.92.

Then only a few days later, this pair on cover sent by the Insured rate fetched £138.00. With the manuscript indicating that the contents was £50, the franking pays 15d in insurance and registration (5d for the first £12, each further insured amount of £12 pounds cost 2 1/2d extra), plus the double the UPU letter rate. Both are very welcome additions to my collection!

This cover definitely interested me, and I was planning to make a cheeky bid, but alas, I forgot about it and it was sold before I knew it…for £139.05! At first glance, it is just a pair of 2 1/2d paying the double letter rate to Italy. Nothing unusual there. But take a closer look at the image and you will notice that it is going to Sir Henry F. Ponsonby, who not only rose to the rank of Colonel in the Grenadier Gaurds and fought in Crimea, but also later became Keeper of the Privy Purse and Private Secretary to Queen Victoria!! Not only that, but the stamps are cancelled by the scarce Royal “V R” hooded cancel of London, with a Buckingham Palace wax seal of the reverse. Making this a wonderful item for the Royalty collector.

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November 22, 2011 · 9:09 pm

November 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This insured registered cover fetched a handsome £216.03! Sent from West Kensington in London to Berlin in Germany, the cover has a very unusual franking paying 2s 8 1/2d, with the manuscript “insured for twenty pounds” at the top. For letters going abroad, the insurance fee was 5d for the first 12 pounds. This included the registration fee of 2d. Each further insured amount of 12 pounds cost 2 1/2d extra. Therefore paying 7 1/2d in insurance and registration (manuscript as such at lower left), and 25d in postage (10 times the UPU letter rate). Despite the slightly soiled appearance, it is a wonderful franking.

Officials are, not only in my opinion, very underrated. The Inland Revenue overprints are certainly the most common, however it is hard to find a pair of halfpennys paying the 1d letter rate. This pair on an attractive printed OHMS envelope fetched £41.30.

Complete Telegrams like this are rare, and I’m still kicking myself for letting this one go for only £41.00. They are rare because they were supposed to have been destroyed after use. This was the more attractive of two examples that came up on eBay this month, and is franked with a 6d, 4d and a 1 1/2d.

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October 26, 2011 · 8:47 pm

October 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

As can be seen from my census of the 1s green and carmine on cover, there are less than 60 covers known. So while this cover has the most common rate of the 1s green and carmine frankings, and the condition isn’t fantastic, I still expected this cover to easily reach £300. Amazingly I was proven wrong and it fetched a measly £113.04. What a bargain!

The 40 PARAS overprint on the 1/2d vermilion is dogged by controversy due the misappropriation of the handstamp and subsequent use to create mint stamps and philatelic covers. This cover however appears to one of the few genuine usages. Not only that but it was sent registered with the 80pa on 5d paying the registration fee. So although the cover is quite foxed, competitive bidding saw this cover fetch $189.00 (about £120)

This quite scruffy cover fetched £266.50! Sent from Braintree to Shanghai, China, with the manuscript “To be left at the Post Office till called for”. Sent June 19th 1895, a look at the back shows that it remained at the Shanghai post office for nearly 10 months!! Hence the “Dead” manuscript at top left. Very interesting, but worth £266.50?

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September 25, 2011 · 9:39 pm

September 2011 Ebay Report

This 1s green and carmine with inverted watermark catalogues at £850, and was sold for £375. In fine condition, something of this calibre rarely comes up on eBay.

 

 
This cover fetched a good price at £97.45. As a franking it is not much to write home about, but because it is going to Orange Free State in Africa, it is much more sought after, possibly moreso by collectors of Orange Free State postal history as an example of incoming mail. This example shows the 4d rate to Africa plus 2d registration fee.
Printed advertising covers are collectable in their own right. This attractive one is advertising Malloch Fishing Tackle in Perth, and was sold for £79.94.

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August 30, 2011 · 10:51 am

August 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This newspaper wrapper to La Spezia in Italy sold for £39.49…which surprsied me a little bit. It was something I would have bid on, but it was actually over £30 within a couple of days of being listed. Obviously I’ve slightly underestimated the scarcity of uprated newspaper wrappers with anything other than a 1/2d or 1d.

Control letters are very collectable and rare ones, like this Inland Revenue 1/2d green with control R, fetch good prices. In unmounted mint condition, this block realised £71.82.

3d on Registered envelope paying 4d in registraion

 

 

This registered envelope from Ryde to Southampton was of interest to collectors of the different rates, and fetched £29.56, much more than a normal single franking with a 3d purple on yellow. As can be seen at the lower left of the envelope, there is “FEE PAID” with a manuscript “4” inserted, indicating that the sender had paid for extra compensation incase of loss.

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